According to a recent report, human beings are becoming so incredibly stupid that they require cushioned lamppost bases so that when they run into them they don't mess up their idiotic faces. Apparently, a study in the UK found that one in ten people actually managed to hurt themselves by walking into a post while peering down at their mobile phone screen. The mishaps -- called "walking and texting" injuries -- have spurred the charity Living Streets to launch the padded-post-pilot scheme in Brick Lane, London. It seems that if all goes well, there are plans to roll out the idiot-proof system in Birmingham, Manchester, and Stupidton.
Update: Thanks Mike, video now added after the break. Did he really say "higgily hoopily?"
[Image courtesy Yahoo! News]
posted Mar 6th 2008 5:39AM
Might as well pad up the rest of the city...
Why not let natural selection do it's thing?
Sorry to be a grammar-Nazi, but maybe natural selection should also
apply to people who don't understand the difference between it's and
its.
just bubble wrap the whole place, apparently you could even jump off buildings then.
seriously though, what's next, big foam bumpers on cars for people who don't look while texting & crossing the street? then, we have to foam up the people too because if you bump into someone you could offend them or get hurt.
Why not put everyone in big hamster balls so that they can just play pinball on the way to wherever they are going.
Meh, you're not sorry at all. You're just a dick.
Is he a dick? Perhaps.
Is he correct? Absolutely.
Finally, something that might thin the herd a bit...death by text messaging. These people, obviously incapable of survival in today's "real" world, would do a more thorough job of eliminating their genes from the pool if they would walk in front of moving cars instead of running into lampposts.
Finally, something that might thin the herd a bit...death by text messaging. These people, obviously incapable of survival in today's "real" world, would do a more thorough job of eliminating their genes from the pool if they would walk in front of moving cars instead of running into lampposts.
Surely a more economical approach would be to rap the texter in foam?
I always say "people walk how they drive". If this city can't even multi-task while walking, I'm scared to even see what happeneds when they have a phone, radio, climate control, navigational system, and stearing wheel to distract them.
Out with "walk and chew gum" phrase. We now must start to brag about being able to "walk and text".
Zaisan, that would get rid a lot of non-English speaking people...
Though your grammar policing skills are superb, you may want to think before you speak/write.
This has to be a hoax
Please!
This is suerly just 26 days early!
ha ha, that was my first thought too.
You mean April 1, aka everyone's-a-troll day?
I'm blacking out the interwebs on 4/1/08.
This is ridiculous. Living Streets must be P.R. hungry right now.
Even though that sounds like a completely ridiculous idea, I will have to check this out when I'm down there next...
Damn my typing.
This is SURELY just 26 days early!
Sweet, I live in Stupidton!
Sometimes I am shocked by people's stupidity. Even though I myself has done this once, when I was peering down at my newly purchased Burnout 3 for the Xbox 1 and I walked into a pillar in the shopping centre. Damn, that was embarrasing...
Couldn't we just pad the people?
By the looks of the picture he did well to miss the bin!
that actually makes more sense, pad one in 10 ppl, will be cheaper n more aesthetic.
lol nice one mister s
At least you'd be able to pick out the mentally deranged.
You can really see it's a beta version. What if you come from the other side? And a audio warning signal would be nice, specialy with traffic and all. So it must be really loud.
But keep up the good work, let's make this world a better place!
;)
they really need to think about how it looks... because that looks ridiculous.
Did he really say "higgily hoopily?"
No. He said "higgledy piggledy", suggesting the random nature of street obstructions.
If anything, don't pad them. The next time the retard runs into the pole, he'll either learn his lesson or be knocked out. Either way, I'd be satisfied.
Go one further, put big spikes on the poles. The problem will solve itself.
that made me laugh! nice one :)
I'm more in favour of 20K volts, for the humorous leaping effect, plug you avoid the blood and spreading diseases issues.
either way, that padding there is fine for him 'going' to get his lunch, but 'coming back' he's going to split his head clean open
@Wolfticket:
Hahaha...Textality. I like it!
yes YES! cameras, audio mood adjusters, vitamin distribution control, padded corners.. the test chamber is almost complete!
I vote to leave the Lampposts un-padded, by doing this we will be able to see Darwinism at work. Those who keep walking into lampposts will eventually become brain damaged and unable to have kids (especially if there are those damn groin height bollards), this means the genes that cause them to walk into lampposts will fade out and future generations will be free to roam and text at will.
Thank you Charles Darwin.
Not that I really want to pick apart your joke, but I don't think brain damage implies sterility. In fact, lower intelligence is usually correlated (perhaps spuriously) with larger family size. If you want to sterilize the people walking into these poles, then you're going to have to look to something other than just leaving them un-padded.
I vote to put large spikes on the lampposts, to aid the darwinist process
natural selection has nothing to do with Darwinism, natural selection is a fact. Darwinism is a theory in which one species "magically" becomes another
somehow you believe that walking into a pole while texting is a genetic trait? are you serious? Your little theory is ridiculous. Should we also kill anyone who is handicap physically or mentally? Because that would also get rid of the weak people as you think.
@technophobe
From Wikipedia:
--
Darwinism is a term for the underlying theory in those ideas of Charles Darwin concerning evolution and natural selection. Discussions of Darwinism usually focus on evolution by natural selection, but sometimes Darwinism is taken to mean evolution more broadly, or other ideas not directly associated with the work of Darwin.
--
Notice that it states that Darwinism is slightly ambiguous, and is sometimes used to refer to the process of evolution through natural selection. So the usage of 'Darwinism' by the OP doesn't seem incorrect to me.
On a side note, there is the Darwin Awards that these people might want to try out for... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_awards
this is a PR stunt... volkswagon did the same thing a few years ago in the UK
they padded lamposts near their billboards to say "people are so amazed at our prices that they're not looking where they are going"
it didn't work either.
That's what I'm thinking also.
On the other hand every time I read about someone driving off an unfinished bridge or something because they were following their GPS it seems to be a Brit...so maybe. ;)
that's very true.. I did nearly drive a rented van into a 6ft 2" height restriction the other day because of this very problem.
I think it's a stunt as well. When I saw a couple video crews there the other day (presumably filming the news segment and other related video) all of the pads were 118.com-branded, and I notice they're not in the ITN clip. Plus they had the guys in the stupid 118 get-up bumping into the pads and passers-by.
I'm ashamed to say I have walked into a lamppost while using my phone, although I was entering in a friends phone number rather then texting, although he was standing next to me at the time so that just made it worse.
It was night too, things are hard to see at night. They really should stick big lights on the top of those things to make them easier to see..... oh wait
than*
I can't recall doing this before, but I've certainly walked into things because I wasn't looking where I was going, and it's never occurred to me to blame the f***ing lamppost. For once I really hope this is a PR stunt for someone...
lol in Manchester... some tramp/manc gang will just nick the padding for extra bedding... I give it 10 minutes before they're stolen. Also do you want us UK people to start with the huge idiotic list we have on you yanks? I think the comment box needs a higher word count for that.
Tis what I was thinking, a rare opportunity for our yankee brothers to have a laugh at us. Anyway, back to the stupid americans video I was watching on youtube.
That'r really a race at who owns it bigger....
Man, no American even made a comment about the UK before your post... seems like you are a little self-conscious... May need to enlist in a 'love thyself' class or something.
it was implied in the main post acctually. since most the editors are in America and no self respecting brit would call themselves stupid we leave that to the yankie boys
First we had the phenomenon of "smexting", where UK smokers who are forced outside to smoke spend their time texting. I guess that makes this "wexting" then.
I once run into a pole. Sure it was hurful! But...seriously...I knew I was the idiot, not the pole being not cushioned.....
was the Polish man you ran into alright?
One can only hope that they'll use some sort of advanced memory foam that will store an impression of a person after they awkwardly bash their face into the lamppost.
Looks like April Fools day has come early. This story is total bollocks.
Nanny state strikes again
they should put ads on the padding so when you hit your head youll see them!
"head-on"
Apply directly to the forehead.
"head-on"
Apply directly to the forehead.
"head-on"
Apply directly to the forehead.
"head-on"
Apply directly to the forehead.
"head-on"
Available at your local Walgreens, CVS, or other fine retailer.
I can confirm it's not real, I live there & my housemate went to check it out once the reports came out; no sign of them.
Having said that they may well have been nicked by then, an hour had probably passed.
As per my earlier comment, I can confirm that they were there the morning-before-last, when I walked in to work. (Particularly one of the corners they show in the ITN clip, where Brick Lane meets Hanbury St.) Although it did just look like a 118.com publicity stunt on that one corner.
The real answer is a distance alert sensor on the phone, so as you're texting it says "heads up, asshole!" and you can avoid the post.
How about this...put EVERYONE in a padded room, then no one can hurt themselves. I wondered how texting figures into the grand scheme of evolution...now we know!
Imran wrote "Tis what I was thinking, a rare opportunity for our yankee brothers to have a laugh at us. Anyway, back to the stupid americans video I was watching on youtube."
Wow, had to make it personal didn't you. Be nice. If it wasn't for the US of A, you wouldn't have the freedom to be an arse.
America isn't perfect, but I still prefer living here than there.
It's the truth though.
Ok, people over here walk into lapposts, so we're padding them - over there you've got politicians trying to make it illegal to use phones or iPods on the move because people walk into traffic: http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/07/bill-banning-ipods-and-cellphones-on-new-york-city-streets-comin/
And get over the 'you saved our asses in WW2' thing already.
Saved our asses? More like turned up late, pish!
Actually there was nothing personal about it, if I wanted to offend anyone I wouldn't have referred to said yanks as 'our yankee brothers', maybe something slightly less loving, but of course that wasn't my intention, I simply returned the slight ironic undertones with a bit of good ol' english loving. And please, let's not talk about the war. And here's that video http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE
Grammar twat.
He didn't say "higgily hoopily" (though I think I might start using that one from now on because it's great). He said "higgeldy piggeldy", which means jumbled up; scattered about randomly; all over the place. I guess it's a very British term, it wouldn't raise an eyebrow here.
FWIW I agree with previous commenters. It's a publicity stunt. The reporter mentions the survey was commissioned by 118118 (a directory enquiries company that accepts enquiries by text message - see what they did there?) and I wouldn't put it past that company to do this sort of thing to get some attention and airtime.
"Higgledy piggledy" is known on this side of the pond, although I suppose it might be uncommon. It showed up in Bloom County about 20 years ago, for example.
Indeed, far be it from ITN to be influenced by commercial sponsorship...!
Whilst they are doing this, I'm going around removing manhole covers.
I notice the pads only cover half the post. What happens if you're coming from the other unpadded side? And how long before they carry adverts on them. If its all true that is! I'm with Darwin on this one
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I personally enjoy seeing yuppies walking into lampposts whilst oggling at their blackberries and iPhones. This would take away much needed amusement from the masses! Power to the people! No padding!
"distracted texters" ??
(laughing)
...you mean, "f*ing idiots"
gizmodo awesomely dubbed these people textards
Did he really say "higgily hoopily?"
No, I believe that was 'higgle-dy piggle-dy' (at least that's phonetically close, right?), similar in meaning to 'hodge podge', 'without rhyme or reason' and numerous other curious and quaint little sayings that imply disorder.
"Wow, had to make it personal didn't you. Be nice. If it wasn't for the US of A, you wouldn't have the freedom to be an arse."
Really proving yourself to be educated and informed there mate.
This sounds more like an art project protesting humanity's potential for stupidity than an actual civil project.
I would have put some sort of bouncy material instead of foam to see the texters bounce of the pole and run into it again. Ten minutes of doing this, and they will have to look up and wonder why they are not getting anywhere...
I think I saw this in a documentary once. It was called Idiocracy.
This is absolutely hilarious!!!! Technology really causes both evolution and the opposite effect at the same time.
I'm in on this being a hoax (as in toothing hoax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothing) or an April Fools joke that hit the feed services before April.
Haha, "Stupidton".
Why not just have the lampposts send out a text message instead? "Hey, dumbass, look up!"
If you can't watch where you are going, you deserve to run headlong into a lamp post. Padding the city for stupid people is a waste of money and time.
I think alot of people in London already have extra padding. Just give out some free crisps and you should have plenty.
Honestly, it would be better if they didn't pad the poles. I'd rather someone run into one, realize how unaware of their surroundings they are and learn their lesson rather than walk out into traffic because they are unaware of their surroundings.
I am surprize no one has brought up the fact that this is a new service area to advertise on.
I'm sure there are Many innovative Ad ideas that can go here, now that is much bigger than a poll.
Speaking of being bigger than a Poll, I'll bet more poeple start walking/bumping into each other, now that there is less real estate on the sidewalk
Dugg!
http://digg.com/tech_news/Padded_lampposts_for_those_distracted_texters_in_London
Obviously, it's not real news either way, as it's not on the ITN or Living Streets site. So if it's 'real' then it's for PR, otherwise it's a parody or fake a la being rolled out in 'Stupidton'.
Does anyone else see how insanely ridiculous this is? lol
How about putting up webcams that are triggered on impact to start filming idiots falling over. then publish to a website so we can all laugh at them.
We're breeding a world full of moronic pansies. I blame all of this on child bike helmets. I never had one as a kid. I took a spill, nailed my noggin, and quickly learned that trying to bunny-hop a 12" curb was stupid. Where did that thinking get me? Well, late into my 30's, I don't run into flipping street poles now.
Forget this whole padding thing.
If a TXTer get's hurt while TXTing, than just issue them a helmet with "To stupid to walk safely" printed on it!
And what does Engadget have against Liverpool, exactly? There's no need to sum up the city that way... Plus the Beatles came from there.
Anywho, this is a great idea, haha. While pretty pathetic and funny, it's going to save a few trips to casualty for some people, and that's good... until some hobo tears a hole in it and, well, you know the rest of the story... (he gets in it and sleeps there, duh. What were you thinking?)
Ah Brick Lane, other wise known as Bangla Town.
London is full of morons it seems.
No less full of morons than any other part of the world, including yours :)